K19 dubbed "Hiroshima" new pics

[Kapitan]

in the mid 50's america launched nautilus this was the true begining of the undersea cold war now russia was to make her move and some of her moves were shocking.

in the late 50's the soviet union launched its 1st submarine K3 lennisky komsomol, she out classes nautilus in almost every way she was faster could dive deeper and carry more weapons (quoted from norman polmar).

along side K3 a new bread of submarine was launched K19 project number 658 NATO named HOTEL she was to be the first nuclear powerd nuclear missile submarine later called SSBN's.

russia had built the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles she was a converted zulu class known as zulu V by the west the first firing came in the mid to late 50's the first ever firing of a ballistic missile from a submarine was watched by admirals and chief of staff notibly premier Nikita Kreschev the submarines commanding officer was Victor Degyalo (his son is now an admiral in the navy)

"nikita kreschev came up to me he being shorter than i he embraced me kissed me and said you do not know what you have done for your mother land today you have done a great thing later i heard the chief of staff say you know when you fired that missile kreschev began dancing some old russian folk dance at that moment i knew this was the sign of things to come"

Admiral Degaylo in an interview (he was also command of a submarine squadron who he was in control of submarine K129 when she dissapeard in 1968

the K19 began her most ambitious exercise code named arctic circle she was under command of captain nikolai zatayev (who died in 1999 of cancer aged 61) all exercises and drill were going well and the captain pleased with his boat and its crew.

early hours of july 4th 1961 captain zateyev is woken in his cabin the nuclear reactor has failed few hours later he orders surface and to send a message to moscow but the anntenna has shorted and thier on thier own knowing a meltdown is highly possible zatayev orders men into the contaminated compartment

you know its not easy sending a man to his death

Captain zatayev shortly before his death.

all the men who went in to the compartment died with in days of returning home more die in the years following.

when K19 returned to base she contaminated everything within a 700 meter radius it took three years and a team of thousands to decontaminate and rebuild K19 for sea again fate would play again

in 1972 a fire broke out while K19 was at sea 28 men die as a result this fire was cause by a hydralics leak spreading toxic fumes and flames into the submarine.

again the boat was repaired and converted to fire missiles under the sea as a proper SSBN again another fire puts her out of action and when she returns she again is converted this time into a radar and comunications ship or SSQN

but yet again another fire breaks out no casualties are recorded but K19 is returned to service.

after the fall of the berlin wall and the collapse of communism the need for K19 deminished and in 1991 the submarine is finaly decommissioned after 30 years service.

most of her crew from the fateful 1961 voyage are among those at the attendance of the ceramony it wasnt only celebrating the decommissioning but also a reunion for the crew and a celebration of the fall of communist russia.

K19 finaly tied up in gremikha awaiting her fate many wanted her to be truned into a museam but it was never going to be in 2002 K19 was towed to the white sea and to a special dismantlement base where she was cut up and scrapped.

the K19 left behind many scars stories and memorys that will live on, her 41 years of existance proved that russia was so desperate to keep something that carried nuclear weapons at sea they went to extreme lengths to catch up with america.




K19 as she was in 1961



K19 after her rebuild and bough up to project 701 or HOTEL II standard



30 years of hard work misery and pain ends for K19 here she is moored at gremikha along side other submarines she waited here for 11 years untill 2002 when she was towed for scrapping



a hotel class being cut up possibly K19 but i dont know

[Kapitan]

there is still two pieces left of K19 but who knows where they have got to

[joea]

Interesting post Kaptain. What did you think of the movie btw? (Haven't seen it myself).

[Kapitan]

i think it has some faults but over all a good watch i give it 7/10 few problems i noticed were.

a destroyer where the heck that come from ?

the captain shouting about he is a hero (something a captain would never do for fear of underminding the president)

the men being portrayed as drunks and incompatant (captain Igor Kurdin quoted from)

who was that girl who smashed the champagne bottle a common peasent some one high up in the offical party department or daughter of a central commitie member maybe but a peasent

the movie makes for good viewing and tells the story fairly accuratly the rest is the american portrayl of it i mean not many warships would want to get close to a russian submarine especialy in one of the biggest naval exercises of the year

[tycho102]

I've read a little bit about it, and I watched the movie.

There really was a destroyer "shadowing" the sub, just about the whole time it was underway. I think the reactor used plutonium, instead of U235, as it's fissile neutron source; there was the possibility of it generating a small nuclear explosion.

Coupled on top of that, they had a steam leak, and really did ship with chemical suits instead of radiation suits. I did some really crude calculations, given what little information I could find, and figured most of the reactor teams took in 5-8 Gy (Grays). One Gray is about the equivalent of 100 Rems (which, with neutrons and gamma radiation, is the equivalent of 100 Rads). Some lived for a couple of months, others expired within a week; a most unpleasant way to go out.

I kind of remember reading about a fire after it's refit, but didn't know about 2 or 3 subsequent fires. Run that damn thing out into the middle of the ocean and bomb it. That's crazy. Man, they totally weren't paying attention to detail when they slapped that boat together.

Sheesh!

[Kapitan]

for a start the nearst recorded NATO ship was over 300 miles away from K19

and a destroyer shadowingg through thick ice field geeeesss what was it an ice breaker as well ?


i doubt they would use plutonum also but im not a nuclear physasist


and it was catch up what you expect boat to sea first slapped together forget saftey just get it to sea thats the order of that day

[Type941]

well, the crew (surviving) after even being consulted on the technial stuff, still sued the movie makers because of that 'drunken' portrayal of their behavior. Apparently a Russian must be drunk in order for a movie to sell to americans... However the way they portrayed radiation poisoning I heard was pretty realistic, only dumbed down for the viewing as not to completely gross out the viewer. Oh, and the RAASHAN AKSENT was classic, once again. I don't know the accuracy of the reactor problems, but also heard that way it was depicted was somewhat realistic.

6.5/10 as sub movie, and may be 7.5/10 as a general hollywood war drama for average joe.

[Kapitan]

On 15 November 1969 K-19 collided with USS Gato (SSN-615) in the Barents Sea at a depth of 60 m (200 ft). She was able to surface by means of an emergency ballast tank blow. The impact completely destroyed the bow sonar systems and mangled the covers of the forward torpedo tubes. K-19 was repaired and returned to the fleet.

this one i forgot to mention

[Kapitan]

a woman cant remember her name on the real K19 shortly before she was scrapped



captain 1st rank nikolai zatayev who would take the honour to be K19's first captain



vladimir yenin second in command of K19 (XO)



blue print of K19 and the hotel class project 658

[Sea Demon]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Sea Demon

[Kapitan]

lol got more but not now maybe some other time

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Kapitain

a woman cant remember her name on the real K19 shortly before she was scrapped

I think that’s Catharine Bigalow the Producer of K-19: The Widowmaker.

the men being portrayed as drunks and incompatant

A sailor drunk? Naw it can’t be! A sailor would never drink! When a sailor isn’t at sea he’s at home with his wife and kids or at church but never at a bar.

Listen when my dad was in the navy over at NAS Fallon he said the town was nothing but Bars and Whorehouses. A sailor reporting aboard hammered and broke isn’t with out precedent.

Oh and there is no shortage of stupid people in any military.

[Type941]

eh... drunk during patrol is diffeent to being drunk on shore leave or hangover after returning from it.

I found this picture of it as well. Don't know what period it is though.

[Kapitan]

its early probly mid 60's late 60's

[Type941]

Yes, but is it after an accident? That tower looks destroyed on the back.